University of Virginia Library

ACT III.

SCENE I.

ROME. CAPITOL. Rienzi and the Pope's Nuncio.
Nuncio.
With infinite affliction, potent Tribune!
The Holiness of our Lord the Sovran Pontiff
Learns that Andrea, prince of Hungary,
Hath, in the palace of Aversa, been
Traitorously slain. Moreover, potent Tribune!
The Holiness of our Lord the Sovran Pontiff,
Hears sundry accusations: and, until
The guilt or innocence of those accused
Be manifested, in such wise as He,
The Holiness of our Lord, the Sovran Pontiff
Shall deem sufficient, he requires that troops
March from his faithful city, and possess
Otranto and Taranto, Brindisi
And Benevento, Capua and Bari,
Most loving cities and most orthodox.
And some few towns and villages beside,
Yearning for peace in his paternal breast,
He would especially protect from tumult.
Laying his blessing on your head thro' me
The humblest of his servitors, thus speaks
The Holiness of our Lord the Sovran Pontiff.

Rienzi
(seated).
Lord Cardinal! no truer stay than me
Hath, on Italian or Provenzal ground,
The Holiness of our Lord the Sovran Pontiff.
The cares that I have taken off his hands
The wisdom of his Holiness alone
Can measure and appreciate. As for troops,
That wisdom, seeing them so far remote,
Perhaps may judge somewhat less accurately.
The service of his Holiness requires
All these against his barons. Now, until
I hear the pleas of Hungary and Naples,
My balance is suspended. Those few cities,
Those towns and villages, awhile must yearn
For foreign troops among them; but meantime
Having the blessing of his Holiness,
May wait contentedly for any greater
His Holiness shall opportunely grant.
Kissing the foot of his Beatitude,
Such, my lord Cardinal, is the reply
From his most faithful Cola di Rienzi,
Unworthy tribune of his loyal city.

Nuncio.
We may discuss anew this weighty question
On which his Holiness's heart is moved.

Rienzi.
If allocution be permitted me
To his most worthy Nuncio, let me say
The generous bosom would enfold about it
The friend, the neighbour, the whole human race,
And scarcely then rest satisfied. With all
These precious coverings round it, poisonous tongues
Can penetrate. We lowly men alone
Are safe, and hardly we. Who would believe it?
People have heretofore been mad enough
To feign ambition (of all deadly sins
Surely the deadliest) in our lord the pope's
Protecting predecessors! Their paternal
Solicitude these factions thus denounced.
Ineffable the pleasure I foretaste
In swearing to his Holiness what calm
Reluctance you exhibited; the same
His Holiness himself might have exprest,
In bending to the wishes of those cities
So orthodox and loving; and how fully
You manifested, by your faint appeal,
You sigh as deeply to decline, as they
Sigh in their fears and fondness to attain. [Nuncio going.

Help my lord Cardinal. This weather brings
Stiffness of joints, rheums, shooting pains. Way there!

SCENE II.

CAPITOL. Rienzi, Acciajoli, Petrarca, and Boccaccio.
Boccacio.
If there was ever upon throne one mind
More pure than other, one more merciful,
One better stored with wisdom, of its own
And carried from without, 'tis hers, the queen's.
Exert, my dear Francesco, all that eloquence
Which kings and senates often have obeyed
And nations have applauded.

Petrarca.
My Boccaccio!
Thou knowest Rome, thou knowest Avignon:
Altho' so brief a time the slave of power,
Rienzi is no longer what he was,
Popes are what they have ever been. They all
Have families for dukedoms to obey.

Boccaccio.
O! had each holy father twenty wives
And each wife twenty children! then 'twere hard
To cut out dukedoms for so many mouths,
And the well-furred tiara could not hatch
So many golden goose-eggs under it.

Petrarca.
We must unite our efforts.

Boccaccio.
Mine could add
Little to yours; I am not eloquent.

Petrarca.
Thou never hast received from any court
Favour or place; I, presents and preferments.

Boccaccio.
I am but little known: for dear to me
As fame is, odious is celebrity.

Petrarca.
I see not why it should be.

Boccaccio.
If no eyes
In the same head are quite alike, ours may
Match pretty well, yet somewhat differ too.

Petrarca.
Should days like yours waste far from men and friends?

Boccaccio.
Leave me one flame; then may my breast dilate
To hold, at last, two (or almost two) friends:
One would content me: but we must, forsooth,
Speculate on more riches than we want.
Moreover, O Francesco! I should shrink
From scurril advocate, cross-questioning
Whom knew I in the palace? whence my knowledge?
How long? where first? whence introduced? for what?
Since in all law-courts I have ever entered,
The least effrontery, the least dishonesty,
Has lain among the prosecuted thieves.

Petrarca.
We can not now much longer hesitate;
He hath his eye upon us.

Boccaccio.
Not on me;
He knows me not.

Petrarca.
On me it may be then,
Altho' some years, no few have intervened
Since we last met.

Boccaccio.
But frequent correspondence
Retains the features, nay, brings back the voice;
The very shoe creaks when the letter opens.

Petrarca.
Rienzi was among those friends who sooner
Forget than are forgotten.

Boccaccio.
They who rise
Lose sight of things below, while they who fall
Grasp at and call for anything to help.

Petrarca.
I own I cease to place reliance on him.
Virtue and Power take the same road at first,
But they soon separate, and they meet no more.

Usher.
The Tribune, ser Franceso! claims your presence.

Rienzi.
Petrarca! pride of Italy! most welcome!

Petrarca.
Tribune of Rome! I bend before the fasces.

Rienzi.
No graver business in this capitol,
Or in the forum underneath its walls,
Or in the temples that once rose between,
Engaged the thoughts of Rome. No captive queen
Comes hither, none comes tributary, none
Courting dominion or contesting crown.
Thou knowest who submits her cause before
The majesty that reigns within this court.

Petrarca.
Her, and her father, and his father knew I,
Nor three more worthy of my love and honour
(Tho' born to royalty) adorn our earth.
Del Balzo hath supplied the facts: all doubts
On every side of them hath Acciajoli
Clear'd up.

Rienzi.
But some will spring where others fall,
When intellect is strongly exercised.

Petrarca.
The sources of our intellect lie deep
Within the heart; what rises to the brain
Is spray and efflorescence; they dry up.

Rienzi.
However, we must ponder. So then truly,
Petrarca! thou dost think her innocent?

Petrarca.
Thou knowest she is innocent, Rienzi!
Write then thy knowledge higher than my belief:
The proofs lie there before thee.

Rienzi.
But these papers
Are ranged against them.

Petrarca.
Weigh the characters
Of those who sign them.

Rienzi.
Here the names are wanting.

Petrarca.
Remove the balance then, for none is needed.
Against Del Balzo, upright, stern, severe,
What evidence can struggle?

Rienzi.
From Del Balzo
The Queen herself demands investigation
Into the crime, and bids him spare not one
Partaker.

Petrarca.
Worthy of her race! Now ask
If I believe her guiltless.

Rienzi.
May we prove it!

Acciajoli.
She shall herself, if needful. Should more answers
Be wanted from me, I am here before
That high tribunal where the greatest power
And wisdom are united; where the judge
Gives judgment in the presence of such men
As Rome hath rarely seen in ancient days,
Never in later. What they hear, the world
Will hear thro' future ages, and rejoice
That he was born in this to raise an arm
Protecting such courageous innocence.

Rienzi.
Lord Seneschal of Naples, Acciajoli!
We have examined, as thou knowest, all
The documents before us, and regret
That death withholds from like examination
(Whether as witnesses or criminals)
Some inmates of your court, the most familiar
With queen Giovanna.

Acciajoli.
Did she then desire
Their death? as hidden enemies accuse her
Of one more awful. I presume the names
Of the young Sancia, count Terlizzi's bride,
And hers who educated that pure mind
By pointing out Giovanna, two years older,
Filippa of Catana.

Rienzi.
They are gone
Beyond our reach.

Acciajoli.
Sent off, no doubt, by one
Who loved them most, who most loved her! sent off
After their tortures, whether into Scotland
Or Norway or Laponia, the same hand
Who wrote those unsign'd papers may set forth.

Rienzi.
I cannot know their characters.

Acciajoli.
I know them
Loyal and wise and virtuous.

Rienzi.
But Filippa
Guided, 'tis said, the counsels of king Robert.

Acciajoli.
And were those counsels evil? If they were,
How happens it that both in life and death
The good king Robert was his appellation?

Rienzi.
How many kings are thrust among the stars
Who had become the whipping-post much better?

Acciajoli.
Was Robert one?

Rienzi.
We must confess that Robert
Struck down men's envy under admiration.

Acciajoli.
If then Filippa guided him, what harm?

Rienzi.
She might have fear'd that youth would less obey
Her prudent counsels than experience did.

Acciajoli.
Well might she: hence for many a year her cares
Have been devoted to our queen's instruction,
Together with queen Sancia, not without:
And neither of these ladies (I now speak
As president) have meddled with our councils.

Rienzi.
When women of low origin are guides
To potentates of either sex, 'tis ill.

Acciajoli.
I might have thought so; but Filippa showed
That female wisdom much resembles male;
Gentler, not weaker; leading, not controlling.
Again! O tribune! touching low estate.
More vigorously than off the downier cradle
From humble crib springs up the lofty mind.

Rienzi.
Strong arguments, and cogent facts, are these! [To an Usher.

Conduct the queen of Naples into court.

Acciajoli.
That, by your leave, must be my office, sir!

SCENE III.

Rienzi, Acciajoli, Giovanna, and Prior of the Celestines.
Rienzi.
Giovanna, queen of Naples! we have left you
A pause and space for sorrow to subside;
Since, innocent or guilty, them who lose
So suddenly the partner of their hours,
Grief seizes on, in that dark interval.
Pause too and space were needful, to explore
On every side such proofs as may acquit
Of all connivance at the dreadful crime
A queen so wise, and held so virtuous,
So just, so merciful. It can not be
(We hope) that she who would have swept away
Playthings of royal courts and monkish cells,
The instruments of torture, that a queen
Who in her childhood visited the sick,
Nor made a luxury or pomp of doing it,
Who placed her little hand, as we have heard,
In that where fever burnt, nor feared contagion,
Should slay her husband.

Acciajoli.
Faintness overpowers her,
Not guilt. The racks you spoke of, O Rienzi!
You have applied, and worse than those you spoke of.

Rienzi.
Gladly I see true friends about her.

Acciajoli.
Say
About her not; say in her breast she finds
The only friend she wants . . her innocence.

Rienzi.
People of Rome! your silence, your attention,
Become you. With like gravity our fathers
Beheld the mighty and adjudged their due.
Sovran of Naples, Piedmont, and Provence,
Among known Potentates what other holds
Such wide dominions as this lady here,
Excepting that strong islander whose sword
Has cut France thro', and lies o'er Normandy,
Anjou, Maine, Poictou, Brittany, Touraine,
And farthest Gascony; whose hilt keeps down
The Grampians, and whose point the Pyrenees?
Listen! she throws aside her veil, that all
May hear her voice, and mark her fearless mien.

Giovanna.
I say not, O Rienzi! I was born
A queen; nor say I none but God alone
Hath right to judge me. Every man whom God
Endows with judgment arbitrates my cause.
For of that crime am I accused which none
Shall hide from God or man. All are involved
In guilt who aid, or screen, or spare, the guilty.
Speak, voice of Rome! absolve me or condemn,
As proof, or, proof being absent, probability,
Points on the scroll of this dark tragedy.
Speak, and spare not: fear nought but mighty minds,
Nor those, unless where lies God's shadow, truth.

Rienzi.
Well hast thou done, O queen, and wisely chosen
Judge and defenders. Thro' these states shall none
Invade thy realm. I find no crime in thee.
Hasten to Naples! for against its throne
Ring powerful arms and menace thy return.

[Acciajoli leads the Queen out.
Prior of the Celestines.
Thou findest in that wily queen no crime.
So be it! and 'tis well. But tribune, know,
Ill chosen are the praises thou bestowest
On her immunity from harm, in touching
The fever'd and infected. She was led
Into such places by unholy hands.
I come not an accuser: I would say
Merely, that Queen Giovanna was anointed
By the most potent sorceress, Filippa
The Catanese.

Rienzi.
Anointed Queen?

Prior.
Her palms
Anointed, so that evil could not touch them.
Filippa, with some blacker spirits, helpt
To cure the sick, or comfort them unduly.

Rienzi.
Among the multitude of sorceresses
I find but very few such sorceries,
And, if the Church permitted, would forgive them.

Prior.
In mercy we, in mercy, should demur.

Rienzi.
How weak is human wisdom! what a stay
Is such stout wicker-work about the fold!

Prior.
Whether in realms of ignorance, in realms
By our pure light and our sure faith unblest,
Or where the full effulgence bursts from Rome,
No soul, not one upon this varied earth,
Is unbeliever in the power of sorcery:
How certain then its truth, the universal
Tongue of mankind, from east to west, proclaims.

Rienzi.
With reverential and submissive awe,
People of Rome! leave we to holy Church
What comes not now before us, nor shall come,
While matters which our judgments can decide
Are question'd, while crown'd heads are bowed before us.